After every long brew day, most homebrewers end up with two things: a fermenter full of liquid that is hopefully on it’s way to becoming a delicious brew and a great deal of spent grain that normally winds up in the garbage. Although some breweries have arrangements where they donate their spent grain to local farms for animal feed, this is not practical for most homebrewers and the grain winds up going to waste. However, many delicious recipes can be made from it. We were actually able to make these muffins while we were brewing our beer/cider hybrid, which is one of the many benefits of having a brewing partner. The entire process probably took about 40 minutes, tops, and gives you a delicious snack to enjoy after a long and tiring brew day. Enjoy!

1 cup flour

1 cup spent grains

1 tbsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

2 eggs

1 cup milk with 1 tbsp white vinegar

2 tbsp brown sugar

1/3 cup white sugar

5 tbsp butter

1 tsp vanilla

1 apple of your choice cut into small cubes

1/4 cup chopped walnuts

2 tsp ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Combine white vinegar and milk and set aside. In a separate bowl whisk flour, grains, baking powder, baking soda and salt together . Separately whisk eggs, sugar, cinnamon, melted butter and vanilla together, then slowly incorporate the milk/vinegar. Mix wet ingredients into dry ingredients, then mix in the apples and walnuts, being careful not to overmix. Spoon into a muffin pan until the batter is just below level with the top of the cups. This should yield about 12 regular sized muffins. Sprinkle brown sugar on top. Bake for approx 14 – 16 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean.

These make a great breakfast food, but also pair nicely with beer (go figure!).